Germans Get Engineers Started Young

With a personnel shortfall that's serious and getting worse, Germany wants to get its next generation of engineers started as soon as possible, the Financial Times reports. Hundreds of companies are sending materials and experts to kindergartens to try interest youngsters in technology and science. They hope getting the tots interested early will preserve Germany's reputation as a land of engineering.

"We want to excite children about technology from the earliest age. What they learn then can stay with them for the rest of their lives,” one exec said. "We are working with kindergartens," said another. "This is our future and we need to seize it.” (More preschool stories.)